Secret songs, stellar shows, and Shrek 5: Chatting with Jordy of Teenage Dads

Originally hailing from Melbourne, Australia, the ARIA Award winning, and Triple J Hot
200 chart-topping band, Teenage Dads, are on the up-and-up. Having released their album Majordomo, in August of 2024, “finds the Dads light on their feet, joyful, and busy,” according to Rolling Stone Australia.

The dads are currently just kicking off their upcoming headlining tour of the United States, just finishing their first few shows in Nashville, Atlanta, New York City.

Bright and early on a Monday morning, we had the pleasure of chatting with Jordan ‘Jordy’ Finely, lead singer, guitarist, and keyboardist of Teenage Dads. He joins our meeting as he fixes his hair and exchange niceties about their upcoming show in Washington DC later that night.

Hey Jordy! Thank you for making time this morning, I know you all are so busy right now, thank you so much for coming on. How are the first few shows? How’s it going from so far?
It’s been good, We were all really surprised at how the Nashville show went! Atlanta was sick as well. It was our first time there. We’re super excited. I’m excited for DC tonight! I think all the shows are looking like they’ll be pretty decent signs for us anyway.

How did you guys come up with the name “Teenage Dads”?
There used to be five of us in the band, another guy named Reese. He suggested the name because he wanted to use it for another band that he was in, and they didn’t like it. We just picked it as like, ‘This will be a placeholder, we’ll pick something down later and it’s a future problem’. That was 10 years ago, so, it just kind of stuck.

You guys have said before that you don’t like being called a ‘surf-indie’ band. So, how would you classify your music if you were to put it in a genre to someone who’s never heard of you before?
Well, if I was being super generic, we just tell people like indie rock. I always tell people it sounds like if The Strokes, Talking Heads, and Divo had a kid.

Your US headlining tour started a few days ago, how did you feel about going into another headlining tour, especially in the US. What were you most looking forward to when going to the US again?
Personally, I’m excited about maybe selling out a few shows, especially in Toronto, New York, and LA. It’s feeling a bit like what it was when we started [in Australia]. Things are happening quicker here than it did for us at home. I know the first time we played in Sydney, we played to two people and a dog.

The vibe’s good and the food’s good.

Are there any major differences between US and Aussie crowds?
One thing we noticed in America that’s never happened in Australia before was, in DC, when we’d finished our set.. We walked off because we were a support band (for Lime Cordiale at the time) [and] the crowd gave us a standing ovation while we were packing our stuff. I’ve never had anything like it. I find the crowds are more distinguishable in places like Europe.

You recently finished your tour supporting Dayglow, what was your experience being like as an opener for him as well as for other artists such as Spacey Jane and Lime Cordiale? How does it differ from headlining?
Being a support is less stressful really, because, when you’re the headliner, you’ve got all that pressure to sell tickets and stuff. Whereas, as the support, it’s like you’re along for the ride and you get to hang out with all these cool people. All the bands we’ve ever opened for, Lime Cordiale and Spacey Jane, we always just think about how we would want people to treat us if we were headlining, like what we would want from a support as far as like maybe like respect, and not being dickhead.

You’re known as the creative one in the band, so how does it feel, designing all the band’s album art? Most notably, the Majordomo cover.
The design process is just me scribbling and stuff, we all still have input together. For “Speedracer” that kind of artwork [was inspired by an] old video game called Gary’s Mod. Where there’s a mode here your avatar can look like it’s driving invisible cars. I was like, ‘we should do something like that.’

So we just set up a drum stall in my backyard and Vinnie brought his camera along and, we found these costumes that looked really cool and helmet and stuff. We just like sat in a chair with our legs out, it looked really stupid.

It’s not always just me, we all have the input. Especially on the cover for Majordomo, because the album itself is about control. Whether you are in control, or out of control. I said to the guys to try and find some unique style of fencing that felt like a cage. The cage can either be something that you’re stuck in or you can’t break out of.

Vin had found this bridge in Melbourne had that really cool, it looks like big squares. So we just spent like a couple hours there and took a bunch of pictures. That one I remember being annoying was picking colors and stuff always becomes a bit of a a task.

Did you have a favorite from the release and was there a song you thought would’ve gotten more popular than it did, or vice versa?
My favorite song on there is probably “Weaponz.” I think that song is so sick, it just felt super different as far as like the structure and that was exciting. As far as songs that I thought would be more popular, is probably “Time to Go.”

Why did you choose “Day In the Life of a No Good Pirate” as the closing song?
I we just thought that was like a cool one to finish on. We gotta send these songs to the label to get approved as well, and I remembered sending it to them and being like, ‘there’s just no way that they’ll say yes to this song’. It was the only song where they said, ‘don’t change anything about this.’

Do you have the worst and the best piece of advice you’ve been given since starting the band?
One thing that we learned for ourselves, is that you can’t expect stuff to just happen for you. There’s like a very small percentage of people who get lucky that have like a viral moment, that transcends like just being viral on the internet, and actually results in people wanting to go to your gigs. if you want people to know about who you are, go on tour.

As far as the worst advice I’ve gotten, I think when you’re starting out, people tell you like, ‘oh, you’ve gotta wait, and you’ve gotta do this, and you gotta plan this before you put out music, and you gotta do all this stuff’. It’s like, Nah! You don’t need to do that. Just put it out, and if it sucks, it sucks. You gotta make bad stuff before you can make good stuff.

You’ve mentioned previously that your love of movies inspired the music video for “Exit Sign”. Were there any other songs of yours in the past, that had a similarly specific inspiration?
I wrote our song “Hey, Diego!” because I was imagining the show, Go, Diego, Go! I love the theme song on that show, I’d like to write a theme song for Go, Diego, Go! in my own way. Which is what “Hey, Diego!” ended up being. I was just imagining like this really sick anime intro with “Hey, Diego!” playing.

Which music video was your favorite one to film?
“Tale of a Man,” that was a fun one. The chain mail and stuff was all genuine and the costumes were all handmade with a lot of care. The designer we had, she was awesome.

On the other hand is, the stuff was super heavy. A lot of the shots were on the hills and on the end of cliffs. So we would walk down and get the shots and then have to walk back up with all of it on. It must have been, an extra 15 or 20 kilos. That was a fun one. But except for the end when we had to jump in the water.

Rapid-Fire Questions. Let’s go:

Who is the first and last to wake up?
First to wake up, if it’s overseas, and we’re settling in for the jet lag, it’s Connor. If it’s just a regular day, it’s Vin, he’s very much a morning person. As far as last one, it’s probably myself. If we say we’re leaving 10 o’clock, then I would rather wake up at like quarter to 10. I’d just be sitting on my phone not doing anything if I woke up early in the morning.

Who takes the longest to get ready?
Angus. that’s for sure. That’s just what he’s like, and he knows that too though.

Who has the best driving playlist? Who’s on aux in the van or the tour bus?
Everyone. The rule we have is, whoever’s driving has aux. Which makes sense because you could be doing a three or four hour stint at a time. I know for myself, I wouldn’t want to listen to any of the other guy’s music as the driver.

What do you play when you’re on aux?
Film soundtracks and stuff. I’ve got this playlist thats got a stupidly large number of songs on there.

Top Four on Letterboxd?
Scott Pilgrim Versus the World, Prestige, Hot Fuzz, and Puss in Boots, The Last Wish.

Who has the highest amount of screen time on their phones.
Of our tour party, it’s our, videographer, he clocked up like 15 hours on his phone for the day. Next highest is myself, Angus, Vinnie, and then Connor. Connor showed us his yesterday, his is 55 minutes.

What is your phone wallpaper right now?
It’s a picture of me and my girlfriend.

What’s the name of the group chat between the four of you?
The one we’ve got, it’s hard to explain. The phrase is like, ‘come on’. I don’t know why, it’s just like this inside joke.

What is the most recent text from the ‘Come On’ group chat?
The most recent message is Vinnie saying: ‘Hey, we should film this New York City video before we go to bed’ and then I say, ‘okay’. I really just wanted to go to bed at that point.

Do you guys have any snacks you always wanna have with you when you’re on tour?
The guys like to have these biscuits called Digestives. I like glass Cokes, that’s my thing. Someone from one of the gigs the other night drank our glass cokes and I was very upset about that. That’s my only diva thing. We get yogurt on as well, those are the two. They’re like the holy grail of things.

Is there a dream venue you’ve always wanted to play?
I think all of us would say Red Rocks.

Is there a show or movie you’d wanna write a theme song for?
If they did a Fourth Puss in Boots. Not Shrek five, but a fourth Puss in Boots.

Why not Shrek 5?
There’s something about it and I get this feeling that the movie’s plot is gonna be Shrek’s daughter going ’I don’t want to live in the swamp anymore.’ And then he’s like, ‘you gotta stay in the swamp, you’ve gotta do it.’ Then she leaves, goes to Far, Far, Away. Then she realizes all along that the swamp is where she wanted to be. Like Fiona’s coming in and making a metaphor going, ‘I’ve been locked away in a tower, I know what it’s like, she should be able to go do her own thing’ Then, and then there’s this big lesson. Shrek’s, like,’ I shouldn’t have told you to be locked away’ And she goes, ‘no, dad, you knew what was good for me.’ That’s the movie. And I, I’m just not keen on it.

Before we go, any final words? Anything you wanna plug before we finish up?
Just come to our tour, Please.